A reasonable turn

State Sen. John Thrasher rolled the dice and lost. But the real losers in his ham-handed effort to divide the Florida A&M-Florida State College of Engineering are the two Tallahassee universities.

With no notice and no committee hearings, Mr. Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, on April 2 offered a budget amendment setting aside $13 million to let FSU start the process of establishing its own engineering school. The amendment was approved, and the uproar began.

In the end, after budget negotiations between the Senate and House, Sen. Thrasher's amendment was set aside — for now.

Instead, the two chambers of the Legislature agreed to do what should have been done in the first place. The Senate instead offered $150,000 to the State University System Board of Governors for a feasibility study. The House agreed, but raised the amount to $500,000.

For a half-million dollars, we taxpayers should get one heck of a feasibility study. But this is how the process should work.

The Board of Governors will have many factors to consider in deciding whether it would be a good move to end the 32-year relationship between FAMU and FSU in the engineering school. There would be redundancy of programs, FSU's "pre-eminent" status, FAMU's historical role in the college and more.

Options could include creating a new, independent college of engineering, somehow offering different engineering programs at the two universities, or simply maintaining the joint college.

Mr. Thrasher seemed pleased that he "got the conversation started." But at what cost?

Based on past experience, specifically the loss of their law school in the 1960s, Florida A&M's administration, students and alumni already are leery of FSU, which is nearly four times larger than FAMU.

A spirit of cooperation between the universities was shaken by Mr. Thrasher's proposal. Text messages exchanged between new FAMU President Elmira Mangum and FSU Interim President Garnett Stokes showed a discomfort on how their positions on the proposal were being portrayed.

Let's hope the feasibility study gets into the real issues – while giving each side time to simmer down. And let's hope that Mr. Thrasher realizes that power isn't something you wield just because you can.